


Wasteland: Prologue

by jink



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 08:40:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13337508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jink/pseuds/jink
Summary: A girl and her robot search for her brother after a nuclear war lays waste to the land.





	Wasteland: Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off an assignment I had to do for school some years ago. A majority of the plot was already written, I just fixed it up and added a few more details after drawing the picture.

Sirens are blaring and something's rumbling in the distance when the girl's father pushes her towards the big box he said she should never play in. When she asks why she has to go in there her father doesn't reply and continues to press buttons until the machine starts humming. Finally he turns to her, "I love you so much you know, and so does your mother.", he says as he pushes her into the machine. "You're the best child I could have ever asked for and you're going to grow up to be a strong, brilliant woman. All I need you to do is survive for me, can you do that sweetie?" She doesn't understand why he's telling her this so suddenly, all she can do is nod. "Thank you," there are tears in his eyes as he kisses her forehead, "remember we'll always love you." All of a sudden there's a sound of an explosion nearby and the ground trembles, her father quickly shuts the door on her and returns to pressing buttons. Before he turns around he looks at her one more time and through the small window in the door, she sees him mouth something before dashing up the basement stairs. "WAIT! COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME!", she screams suddenly panicked, banging on the door. She begins to notice a gas filling the chamber, "Don't leave me alone.", she whispers knowing no one will hear. She slumps back against the wall suddenly feeling drowsy. She barely gets out, "Please come back, I love you too.", before she loses consciousness.

~Some Time Later~

It's cold and something hard is jabbing into her shoulder. She turns over finding it equally uncomfortable, with a mumble she opens her eyes to see what could be causing such discomfort. Darkness, she can't see a thing, her eyes are open right? She touches her face, poking herself in the eye while she's at it. Yup, they're definitely open. Sitting up, she moves her hands around trying to feel for her location, this is definitely not her room, where did she fall asleep this time, she hasn't gone blind has she!? She jabs her thumb on the edge of something hard and yelps. "Better watch my step there.", she thinks as she tries to stand up and feel around more. "Hello? Anyone here?", she asks and is answered by silence. She tries again, "Mom? Dad?", no response. "Anyone, please?", starting to plead, starting to panic, what's happening? Then she notices it, a small green blinking light a few feet to her right. Slowly she makes her was over to it trying to avoid any unseen objects. Reaching out, she touches the little light and is surprised when it gives under her finger. She stumbles back suddenly when two hovering circles quickly light up accompanied by a whirring, sounding as if a computer was starting up. Panic quickly eases away and is replaced by the feel of familiarity. The lights and sound that can only belong to one thing, that dumb piece of junk robot her father always kept lying around "just in case" even though he had much more advanced robots he could use. Well, maybe she shouldn't make fun of him anymore because in this case it's definitely needed. She stands up again with more confidence, hopefully it could still function properly to follow commands. "Robot! Light mode!", she commands. "Please.", she adds, you gotta respect your elders. It's luminescent eyes suddenly become brighter, momentarily blinding her. "Um, thanks, I guess." She takes a look around now that the room is more visible. The laboratory, why was she asleep here? She looks at the metal contraption she had stumbled out of earlier and then around where she could see. Everything was intact but a fine layer of dust covered everything. That was strange, she was in the lab with her father a few days ago and it was spick and span, he would never let it get this dirty. Something was off, something was wrong. "Robot! Follow!" She could hear the grinding and whirring of gears as the robot made it's way towards her. When she turned around to check if the robot was still in one piece she noticed that the little green light was still blinking. There's a message! She remembers! This was meant to be a communications robot after all(and a gofer on the side). "Double press to hear a message, hold down for 3 seconds until you hear the beep to record a message.", she recalls. She and her brother used to leave each other messages every time they went down to the lab, until one time a crude message was discovered by their father and they were chastised for playing with the robot and using crude language. She smiled sadly at the fond memory, where ever her brother was she hoped he was okay. He enlisted right at the beginning of "The War to End All Wars" and was given little time to prepare farewells as he was rushed off to boot camp. It's been years since she's seen him and from what she's heard she didn't know if she'd ever see him again. Shaking her head, she tries to clear her mind of negative thoughts, "Just press the button already!", she thinks and double presses the button.

~2/2/XXXX SENT FROM: XXXXX "Father, I don't know if you'll hear this, or if you even survived. I heard the missiles were launched...I...didn't even know...I don't know why we didn't stop them! I'm sorry...I...I...oh god. No one could have survived that. No one's going to survive this. We're doing a counter attack. We're going to launch ours and put an end to them too. I'm so sorry, father, mother, sis. I couldn't do anything, I wanted to protect you. This was the reason I joined, to protect you, the town...FUCK...fuck, I can't believe this. THEY COULD'VE DONE SOMETHING, ANYTHING, THEY COULD'VE...we could've...we couldn't have done anything. I'm so sorry, please forgive me. I love you." MESSAGE END~

Disbelief. Lying. Fake. This wasn't real. A cruel prank. A lie, a lie, a lie. What was this message, what was he talking about, everyone was fine? She was fine, she was fine, right? "Robot," her voice wavered, "what is today?" A pause, "Today is 8/13/XXXX." its monotone voice stated. She stared blankly into its face for a few minutes before breaking into a sprint towards where she assumed the basement door was, stumbling as her bare feet stepped on pieces of rubble. She threw her body at the door in an attempt to throw it open but was met with firm resistance and stumbled back grabbing her shoulder in pain. It was stuck, the usually flimsy door didn't budge and inch. This was bad, very very bad. She stood up and quickly turned around to look for anything to pry it open with and was met with the metal of the robot. A curse escaped her mouth as she ran around it looking for anything to hack away at the door with. Waiting for the robot to come up behind her to illuminate every place she looked. There had to be something, an ax maybe, every lab needs one of those right? Where would father keep the ax, the ax, the ax, a shovel? She grabs the shovel, "Whatever will work!" she tells herself, making her way back to the door and ramming the shovel blade into the door. A few pieces chip off, it's progress she'll take, driving the shovel blade into the door over and over again until blisters start forming on her hands. A small hole starts to form from her effort and from what she can see only the lower half is blocked by something. She starts aiming for the top of the door trying to form a hole big enough for her to crawl out of. She's almost ready to pass out by the time she deems the hole big enough for her to crawl through, with a small boost from the robot she crawls through the door. Dusting off the dirt from her nightgown she finally stands up to discover that her whole world is in ruins.

**Author's Note:**

> Though there are some further plot details written down, I most likely won't be continuing this story so I'm counting it complete as it is.


End file.
